AOHP is the sole, national, professional organization committed to addressing the occupational health and safety of healthcare professionals in healthcare settings. Approximately 1,000 occupational health nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians, and physician assistants belong to AOHP. The annual conference is a venue for learning, sharing, and exchanging best practices. The 2016 annual gathering, occurring September 7-10, 2016, has featured a series of presentations offered to help reduce occupational exposure risk.

A poster presentation, “Blood and Body Fluid Eye Exposure Risk on the Rise,” details the increasing rate of eye and conjunctiva exposures in US hospitals. The findings, presented by Dr. Amber Hogan Mitchell, President and Executive Director of the International Safety Center, are founded in data reported by 30 US hospitals from 2012-2014. With statistics from the Center’s Exposure Prevention Information Network (EPINet®), Dr. Mitchell has been able to quantify mucocutaneous blood and body-fluid exposures affecting a variety of body locations, including the highest-risk and frequently under-protected eyes and conjunctiva. Dr. Mitchell also compared levels of eye exposure and protection among the roles of nurses and physicians. Dr. Mitchell found eye exposures represented more than 60% of incidents in all years, the percent of staff wearing eye protection fell to 2.8% in 2014, and eye-exposure incidents were higher for nurses (47.4-53.2%) than physicians (13.0-14.9%), yet nurses wore eyewear even less often (2.2-3.8%) than physicians (8.3%-33.4%). Dr. Mitchell concludes healthcare workers and especially nurses remain at risk from unprotected eyes.